The Most Wonderful Christmas Gift
by Wolf Flash
Summary: It's Christmas, but the leader of Star Fox has been down in the dumps ever since Krystal left the team. Can Slippy, Falco and Peppy cheer him up in time for the holidays? And they might just learn a lesson about friendship in the process, too…
1. Chapter 1 - The Plan

_A/N: This is a really, really old fic idea, which I left off on December 25_ _th_ _, 2008 – exactly seven years and two days ago, gosh. I was already some three thousand words into the story, so hey, why let an idea go to waste? I completely reworked this fic the past week, and so here it is, finally complete seven years later. I have split it into chapters to make reading easier. Also – Star Fox is celebrating Christmas in this particular story, but of course, it's not the only winter holiday out there! So, merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, joyous Kwanzaa, happy winter solstice, or whatever else it is that you celebrate around this time of the year (including holidays with non-fixed dates that don't always, but sometimes fall on December once in a while, such as with the Islamic lunar calendar)!_

* * *

 **The Most Wonderful Christmas Gift**

* * *

It was the afternoon of Christmas Eve. All over Corneria, holiday decorations had been put up in anticipation. Candy cane cutouts had been taped to windows, sleek bows hung proudly from streetlights, and pine wreaths on doors welcomed long-awaited guests. Soft little snowflakes fell upon the morning scene, adding the perfect finishing touch. The whole city flared into life with shades of red, gold and green and dancing lights, and a thin layer of snow glazed the sidewalks and buildings like icing on a cake. The entire scene radiated warmth and cheerfulness… at least in appearance.

"FOX!" Slippy yelled at a locked apartment door. No reply could be heard from the other side except a dull sound followed by a loud clatter, as though a chair had been kicked to the floor. The toad pounded on the door more five times before giving up, sighing deeply in the process.

"Just give up already. He's not going to answer."

Slippy turned his head at Falco, who was standing by his side with an annoyed expression. Despite Falco's outward display of impatience and irritation, deep down, everyone knew that even the blue-feathered avian was worried. Before the toad could begin to reply, his teammate pulled him away from the door, into a side corridor.

"But… it's been two, no, three weeks already!" Slippy cried in exasperation, once they were safely hidden in the staircase of the apartment building. His voice quivered with worry. "What do you think that he's doing in there, all by himself?"

Of course, the entire Star Fox team already knew the answer. Their leader still wasn't over his recent loss. The love of his life had left him, to join Star Wolf no less. Fox had been simply devastated – and to what point, the others didn't even dare imagine. No texts or calls could reach him, and not even his teammates' intrusive knocking in the past few days had succeeded in getting him to reply.

"Listen, Slippy. Whatever we do, it's not going to work. Unless we bust open that door, he's not coming out."

The toad couldn't help but let out a faint chuckle at his Falco's suggestion. It was so like his friend to resort to more… direct and physical means to achieve his goals. But even Slippy himself was getting to the point where he wouldn't rule out kicking down that door by force. It was more in his style, though, to devise a way to pick the lock. Yes, maybe he would first try to pick Fox's lock, and after that, Falco could go ahead and kick in the door. It wouldn't be a bad idea if things continued the way they did… His musings were interrupted by the sound of Falco's voice.

"Slippy, let's just leave. If Fox wants to be so moody, that's his problem. We're wasting our time."

"But tonight's Christmas Eve, Falco!" Slippy's eyes filled with sadness, and his voice faded to a faint mumble. "We can't celebrate without Fox…"

"Shoot… What? It's Christmas Eve today?"

Falco was hit by a surprise that quickly turned to embarrassment. He really had forgotten. He had been so preoccupied by his teammate's condition that he didn't keep track of time. But more importantly, for many years now, it was Fox who organized their Christmas celebration, hosting the event and sending all the invitations to the team. And since Fox had cut contact in the past while, nobody had so much as spoken about organizing a celebration. Falco bit his lower beak at the thought.

"Darn it, Slippy… What are we going to do!?"

A smile suddenly lit up Slippy's face. "Hey, it's a good excuse to get him to come out! We have to try!" He spoke much faster than intended, unable to contain the excitement in his voice. "Why don't we… why don't we get him the best Christmas gift ever, and lure him out?"

However, Falco's beak continued twisting into a deeper frown.

"But what do we get him, then?" It's not like we could bring _her_ back or anything! And don't even think about buying Fox anything! Even if we had the money to do that, won't it just make things worse?"

And Falco was right. Even if they had wanted to buy something, the financial pressure they were under would prevent them from doing so.

"Well, if we can't replace the gap in his heart, then we'll have to fill it up!" A new light lit up in Slippy's eyes, and Falco swallowed. He recognized this light, a dangerous light which meant that, now, there was no stopping his amphibian friend – no matter what. "Fox has always been there for us, so we have to help him out now! I'm sure that we could all come up with something he'll never be able to forget!"

"Fine then, _genius_. But where do we start looking? Fox won't come out anytime soon, that's for sure!" Falco was sneering at Slippy as per usual, but this time, it was with a more lighthearted note. Slippy knew that he was being appreciated by his teammate, even though the latter hated to show any signs of concern over others.

"Well… since he's holed himself in for so long, he mustn't have been able to eat a proper meal in a long while! Let's… let's give him a big surprise!" Slippy's own eyes lit up while saying this, imagining what he had in store for Fox. "We could use my place and set up a surprise Christmas party. I have decorations and everything. And we- we could make Fox dinner! We just have to buy some food!"

Falco shrugged. "Okay… fine. As long as you manage to drag him out of the apartment in the first place." Upon finishing the sentence, the avian looked down at his watch… and realized that it was exactly five fifteen. "Shoot! The shops close at six! And what the heck do we buy? It's not like I'd know! Fox was always the one who prepared the dinner!"

"Well… uh… Let's ask Peppy to help us!"

Whether in the context of a mission or not, when in trouble, Slippy had the habit of relying on others to help. Intuitively, something told Falco that consulting the aging hare wasn't the best idea. But then again, if they were to throw Fox an improvised surprise Christmas party, the plan wouldn't be complete without Peppy's involvement.

"Fine," the avian sighed.

Thus, the two Star Fox teammates ran hurriedly down the stairs and exited the apartment to better execute their plan.


	2. Chapter 2 - Action

"PEPPY!" A certain hare's ear drums were nearly perforated as an overly excited voice boomed from the other end of his telephone receiver. "WE NEED YOUR HELP!"

"Hey, youngsters! I'm not deaf yet!" he yelled back. However, the only reply he got was the noise of some sort of verbal fight in the distance. A few moments later, Slippy's voice came back, a little more contained this time in terms of volume. However, he spoke so fast that Peppy had a bit of trouble understanding it all.

"Hey, Peppy! It's Slippy. Falco's here too. Merry Christmas! Please help us! Gotta make Fox dinner. Stores close in forty minutes. We can't go. Please go to the supermarket! To buy stuff! Get something tasty! It has to be ready to eat! Come to my place after. Thanks Peppy! Knew we could count on you!" And before the hare could reply, the line went shut.

"Young people these days," he muttered.

Sighing, Peppy crawled out from under his warm covers where he had been napping. He changed into something presentable, including his favorite flannel shirt, then hurried out of his house and jumped into the car to lend the youngsters a hand.

* * *

"Okay… so how is this going to work, genius?" Falco stared at Slippy, who in turn was staring at the messy pile of old boxes that he had pulled out from deep within his closet. They contained numerous Christmas ornaments and lights from yesteryear, which hadn't been touched in the longest of times. After all, the team's Christmas festivities usually took place at Fox's place, with Fox's tree and Fox's decorations.

"Uhh… we decorate the tree?" the toad replied in a somewhat unsure voice. The duo now had their eyes turned to an old, beaten-up pine tree which Slippy had propped up on the corner of the room. Fallen-off pine needles were scattered all across the floor below the tree, and there almost seemed to be more on the floor than on the actual tree. It was not a very tall tree either, about as tall as Falco.

"Man, and I thought that was for firewood."

"I'll get a stepladder! We could also take out the ornaments and sort them into piles. Then we'll hang them up. Simple, right?" While saying this, Slippy upturned one of the boxes, dumping out all of the contents which clattered and rolled against the floor. Out came an explosive cloud of dust as well. Falco knit his brows, turned his head and waved his wings, but it was of no use. Both of them erupted into a fit of violent coughing.

"These decorations – _cough_ – are – _cough_ – BROKEN, Slippy!"

"Not – _cough_ – ALL of them!" With his webbed fingers, Slippy picked a few ornaments that had escaped unscathed and pushed them to the side. These included a small star made of yellow plastic, a gold orb-shaped ornament, and a foam heart covered in a thick layer of red glitter that was now shedding on his hand. All of them were somewhat cheap-looking, as a matter of fact. Slippy pointed to the little plastic yellow star.

"Hey! We could put this on the top of the tree or something! I'll set it aside."

Then, before Falco could react, Slippy got up and dumped out the contents of yet another box, sending another enormous cloud of dust into the air.

 _This was going to be a long night_ , Falco thought to himself while fanning his wings in front of his face and spluttering.

* * *

Peppy Hare was the father figure of Star Fox, after all, and so he took his task of grocery shopping greatly to heart. He wasn't quite sure exactly what Slippy had wanted – and when he called back, the line was occupied. Thus, he had to do with what he had. On his way to the supermarket that was normally five minutes away, he was stuck in an excruciating traffic that lengthened the drive to twenty minutes.

Once Peppy arrived at the supermarket, there was a bit of trouble afoot… or rather, apaw. It was extremely crowded, because many other fellow citizens were doing their own groceries last-minute. Peppy pushed through the enormous crowd of shoppers, including a family consisting of a young rabbit couple and their three children. Peppy accidentally stumbled and nearly knocked over the youngest child, a small rabbit girl of about four or five years old dressed in a frilly red-and-white dress with a Christmas tree design printed on the front.

"Excuse me," he began to say, putting out his right arm out to help steady her. But his apology was cut short when the girl suddenly turned, grabbed his hand, and bit his extended index finger.

"OWEEEEHHH!" Peppy yelped very, very loudly in pain, and the girl ran off giggling in a blur of red-and-white frills.

"COTTONTAIL!" the father rabbit yelled, tossing the large bag of tomatoes in his hands to the floor and chasing after her. He disappeared into the crowd of shoppers. Behind him, the tomatoes rolled out of the plastic bag and scattered across the floor.

The two older rabbit children, twin boys of no more than six or seven who were wearing matching red shirts also with glittery Christmas tree designs, looked on at the scene. One of them yelled, "Tag! I'm IT!" The two then proceeded to run after their father and younger sister, crying out in excited laughter. On their way they bumped into an old terrier who lost his balance and dropped all the oranges that he had been gathering in his paws. Oranges and tomatoes were now everywhere across the supermarket floor.

The mother of the family, a tired-looking rabbit whose makeup was beginning to smear, turned slowly and set her eyes on Peppy, who all this time had not stopped clutching his right index finger and moaning. She cast him a look of pure hatred, conveying to him through her gaze that he was completely and entirely to blame for the mess, and then walked away.

" _Tarnation_!" Peppy thought. And he would have yelled it out loud too, if only his finger weren't in pain and swelling up, and there weren't dozens of shoppers around already with their heads turned to stare at him.

But the shoppers' heads then turned the other way, to a new source of screeching. The mother rabbit had just stepped, spiked heel first, into a tomato.


	3. Chapter 3 - More Action

So far, so good. The contents of Slippy's boxes had also since been separated into two piles: one full of broken shards and pieces, and another with the ornaments still intact. They were now pondering how they were to put up the tree, since the base that was supposed to hold it up had gone missing over the years it had spent in Slippy's storage closet.

"Falco, could you sweep up the mess while I find a way to get the tree ready?"

"Since when were you giving me orders!?" The avian was not impressed.

"I'm not, Falco! I'm just trying my best to make this all work out…"

Suddenly, the two nearly jumped off the ground as the telephone rung. Guessing that it was Peppy at the apartment entrance, Slippy rushed and picked the phone up at once.

"Peppy! That was so quick! Hope you got nice stuff! I LOVE YOU!" Slippy said all this in a single breath, and promptly punched the button that unlocked the apartment front door. Hanging up in one swift motion, he waved his webbed hand at Falco in excitement.

"Woah! Did Peppy arrive already?" Falco asked. "It's only been like, ten minutes! Are you sure that it's him…?"

"Uh, yeah! I… think?"

Slippy froze as he realized that he hadn't confirmed the identity of the caller. Right after, the telephone rang once more – and Slippy's ears met the voice of a young-sounding female.

"Hello, Mr. Toad and family. I am a representative from Merry Woodland Window Cleaners. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Would you be interested in giving the gift of wonderfully sparkling, awesomely shining, squeaky-clean windows to a loved and cherished one – "

Slippy groaned, hanging up the phone.

"Who was that?" Falco asked.

"Telemarketer… some stupid window cleaning service," Slippy grumbled. "Ever since I put down my phone number for this promotional draw at a shopping center, I haven't stopped getting all these weird calls." His expression then softened into a dreamy look. "But now that I think of it, maybe it would be nice to have some wonderfully sparkling, awesomely shining, squeaky-clean apartment windows for the New Year…"

"Alright, Slippy. I'll just pretend nothing even happened." Falco tried to contain his laughter, but couldn't help but let out a small snort. " Now… how are we going to put up this stupid tree?"

* * *

"Keep calm, Peppy. Keep calm," the hare thought to himself. It was the mantra that he repeated in his mind in difficult situations,, and now, that thought was the only thing stopping him from flying into an uncontrollable fit of rage. He advanced deeper into the supermarket as discreetly as he could. He let out a breath of relief as he managed to turn into an aisle where there weren't too many other shoppers around. There shelves were full of colorful boxes and cans of different foods. He reached into his pocket for his reading glasses…and came to the realization that he had left them on the table at home, atop of his copy of The Cornerian Times, which he had put down to take his nap. He sighed in resignation.

He bent down, squinting, trying to make out what was on one of the packages at the bottom row, glasses or no glasses. Suddenly, a female voice came through the speakers in the store, loud enough to make the entire store collapse.

"ATTENTION ALL SHOPPERS. WE WILL BE CLOSING IN TEN MINUTES. HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY."

" _Aaargh!_ " Peppy yelled out loud. Slippy's yelling over the phone earlier was _nothing_ in comparison to this voice. Simultaneously, all lights in the store went dim.

The hare signed in frustration, and randomly picked up a few boxes, bags and cans in the aisle in his arms. He then hurried towards the checkout at the front of the supermarket. However, an extremely long line had accumulated at each open cash register. The cashiers were working extremely hard by now, but almost every shopper had their cart filled to the brim. As the hare got in line, even more people lined up behind him.

Peppy looked over towards the cash register which seemed miles away, in order to better judge how much longer he would have to stand in the store doing nothing except stand with those heavy items in his arms. He frowned upon recognizing the five white-furred heads currently passing at the end of his line. Mrs. Rabbit Mother was loading an unimaginably large amount of fruits and vegetables onto the conveyer belt, and Mr. Rabbit Father was keeping a half-hearted eye on the children. The twin boys seemed to be chatting excitedly to one another, although their voices blended right into the cacophony in the rest of the store. Slightly behind the others, and thereby closest to Peppy, stood the rabbit girl in her glorious red-frilled Christmas tree dress. Her back was turned to him, and she tapped her feet as though immensely bored. At the moment that Peppy was looking spitefully her way, she happened to turn around and look up in her boredom, meeting his gaze.

Cottonfoot, or Cottontail, whatever her name was, cast a devilish smile right back at him. She then turned around to face her brothers. They whispered a bit more amongst themselves. Then, all three heads turned to Peppy as the girl pointed straight at him, and the children erupted in plainly visible laughter.

"Kids these days…" Peppy mumbled in spite. It was all he could do to ease his rage.

What seemed like hours later but was in truth fifteen minutes, Peppy finally exited the crowded store. The cash register he was in had run out of bags, and he was in too much of a hurry to wait for the cashier to get some more. Therefore, he was still carrying the items in his arms. He was also keenly aware of the throbbing pain still in his right index finger where the girl – Cottonfoot or something – had bit him.

It was quite dark outside by now. He began walking into the parking lot… and realized that he forgot where his car was parked. He stopped where he was, and looked around desperately. Shoppers whizzed by him left and right, and different cars were driving out. Their headlights nearly blinded Peppy's eyes.

Aha! There it was! He finally saw his car, a red, beat-up old thing, at the end of the parking lot. He began to cross the street between the store and parking lot. Just then, an impossibly red Ferrari drove past, even redder than the reddest Christmas ornaments in town. It sprayed a volley of muddy slush onto the legs of Peppy's pants.

Happy holidays indeed…


	4. Chapter 4 - Some Bickering

"I admit, this looks a bit strange… but it kinda works. I'll hand you that."

The two Star Fox members stepped back and eyed their feat proudly. It had taken such a long time, but in the end, they managed to make the tree stand. The old pine, as short as it was, had stubbornly refused to stay upright. It finally surrendered after an immense struggle, during which it had lost even more of its brittle pines. Now it was mottled with bare patches. However, it was still a Christmas tree, and it was standing in the middle of the room. That was the only thing that mattered.

After some ingenious thinking from Slippy's part, they had made their first attempt at keeping the tree upright. The plan had consisted of pushing the tree under the ceiling light, then having Falco hold it while Slippy climbed up a ladder and attempted to suspend the tip of the tree to the light with some of the strongest-looking garlands that they could find. Said plan had failed miserably after the tip of the tree abruptly snapped, sending the pine crashing to the ground.

"At least it wasn't the light that broke," Falco had muttered.

It was Falco's more reasonable plan that ended up working: securing the trunk of the tree to the back of a wooden chair using nearly a whole roll of duct tape. And there it was. The tree standing straight at last, bound to the back of a wooden chair by duct tape.

"This is so great, Falco!" the toad cried in triumph, optimistic as ever. "I bet in all the years of his life, Fox has never seen a tree taped to a chair!"

"Yeah, well, there are lots of things he's never seen… including the mess that this place is in right now."

"Who cares? It's the surprise that matters, Falco!" Slippy then hopped happily up and down in an improvised sort of victory dance, but was interrupted when the phone rang once again.

"Oh no, it's the stupid telemarketer again!" he cried. "You answer, Falco!"

"No way! You answer!"

"I've embarrassed myself enough today! You get this one!"

"How about we just leave it!?" Falco suggested.

"Good idea."

And with that, the two began considering how they were to go about decorating the chair-strapped tree. All the while, the phone continued to ring and ring and ring for a full few minutes before the person on the other end finally gave up.

 _KNOCK. KNOCK._

Ten minutes after the phone stopped ringing, the two were startled to hear a pounding noise coming from the door.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Slippy asked, still staring at the giant mess of scattered decorations lying before him. "Who might it be?"

"Oh shoot!" Falco cried in sudden realization. "We forgot all about old man Peppy!"

"I heard that!" came a muffled, but clearly angry voice from the other side of the door. "NOW WOULD YOU PLEASE LET ME IN!?" Slippy hurriedly bounced to the door, which opened to reveal an extremely pissed-off hare with cans, boxes and bags in his arms, whose pant legs were soaked with dirty melted snow.

" _What's wrong with you both_? I've been standing outside for FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES! You would have found my DEAD, FROZEN BODY tomorrow if some kid hadn't let me in!"

"S-sorry, Peppy…" two meek voices apologized in unison. It was not enough, however, to quell the anger of the older man standing before them.

Peppy then dumped everything he was holding on the kitchen counter, continuing his angry grumbling at the same time.

"First, I get woken from my nap, and then I'm forced to go to this _stupid store_ that's right about to close when I realize that I'd forgotten my _stupid glasses_ , and I couldn't find where I parked my _stupid car_ but then this _other stupid car_ splashes me all over! And oh,that _child_! That devilish child! I may as well have met _the most obnoxious family to ever exist_ in the STUPID LYLAT SYSTEM!"

His rant grew louder and louder from beginning to end, with particular emphasis placed on "STUPID LYLAT SYSTEM" as though he were placing a curse on every single living being that had the misfortune of existing within said planetary system.

"Uh… No wonder why the shopping took you so long…" Slippy pointed out in a tone of forced optimism. "Also…" he added, "you put on your shirt inside-out."

Peppy turned white as Christmas snow as he realized that his favorite flannel shirt was indeed, inside-out with all of the inner seams shown to the outside world. He burst into another fit of angry statements.

"Whoa there! Calm down, Peppy." Falco added in attempt to ease the hare's frustration. "Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax, Pops. Deal with the shirt later. First, what'd you get?"

"So there you have it." Peppy let out a sigh, having been brought more or less back to the present moment by his teammate's intervention. "This is all I could find." He pointed to the items that he had placed on the counter. However, the gesture made him aware once again that his extended right index finger had been bitten very hard not so long ago, and he withdrew it quickly, cursing once more under his breath.

Falco and Slippy both stared at the cans, boxes and bags. The avian was the first to take a can in his wing, reading the label.

"Canned spaghetti sauce… What the heck, Peppy!? Why did you get _canned spaghetti sauce_ _when we don't even have spaghetti_?

"Oh, uhh…" the hare began.

"And easy-bake strawberry cake mix… EASY-BAKE? We needed _ready-to-eat-food!_!" Falco yelled. In anger, he threw the can of spaghetti sauce back onto the counter. The can hit the strawberry cake mix, causing the box to slide across the counter before falling into the sink, while the can rolled off the counter and dented against the floor tiles with an audible "CLACK."

Slippy hurriedly picked up the now-soggy box of cake mix and the dented sauce can, and put them back with the rest of Peppy's offerings. These consisted of eight packages of instant noodles, a can of coffee grounds, and a one-kilogram bag of white sugar.

"You should have been CLEAR about what you needed!" the older hare yelled.

"And this is supposed to be a _Christmas dinner_ ," Falco yelled back at the top of his avian lungs. His feathers seemed fluffed up now, seemingly in anger, but in reality, he was simply expressing his immense disappointment. "Where's the turkey? The cranberry sauce? The log cake?

And now there was a moment of silence. Falco only now saw the expression in Peppy's face, which appeared greatly pained. None of the three said anything. And Falco began suddenly to fidget, tapping his wing against the kitchen counter.

"You know, Falco…" Peppy began. In his voice was a strange mix of frustration, sadness and fatigue. "It really wasn't easy getting just these few things. Especially because I ran into quite a number of… troubles on the way. I did what I could. Besides… I'm vegetarian. I don't eat turkey."

"Uh… Peppy old pal," Falco began, a bit awkwardly. It took him a while to continue his sentence, because he was looking very hard for words. "Uh… yeah. I'm sorry. Actually, I… take everything I said back." He bit his lower beak. Another moment of silence passed. "It mustn't have been, uh, easy. You know, to go and do all this for us in such a short amount of time. I… Fox… we appreciate it."

The expression on Peppy's face softened. "Fine then. Apology accepted… A bit of appreciation for the old hare is nice for once, you know."

"Hey guys! It's not all that bad! Instant noodles and easy-bake cake… we got this! Christmas noodles and Christmas cake. Uh… Christmas coffee too! We don't need fancy turkeys or log cakes!" Slippy chirped in, and forced a smile. "And Falco, cooking's not that bad at all! You'll see! It… it's the Christmas dinner spirit that matters." He paused. "Except, uh, time's passing, and we've barely done anything…"

The three stared together at the clock on Slippy's wall, which showed approximately seven-fifteen P.M.

Slippy curled his webbed hand into a fist. For as long as he could remember, he admired Fox's leadership, and the way he brilliantly took control of difficult situations. This time, for Fox, especially for Fox, Slippy wanted to do something… special. _Out of the ordinary._ Something that his friend would remember, _forever and always_. The Christmas party was his idea, and he wanted more than anything for it to work. That is why he now pretended to cough as though clearing his throat, and tried his best to put on a calm, self-assured voice despite his nervousness.

"Hey, guys… Let's split the work, like a real team! Uh, Peppy, why don't you do the cooking? Falco, you can start decorating. And me, I'll run around helping you both!"

Both of the team members glared back at Slippy, tension rising once again in the room. They weren't expecting the toad to be the one taking charge of the situation. But after a moment, Falco sighed and conceded. "Alright. For Fox. But only because it's for Fox." He then paused. "But I'm not decorating. That's _stupid_."

"You youngsters should _all_ learn how to cook! These are just basic skills _everyone_ needs!" Peppy complained indirectly.

After more than just a few profanities were exchanged, the teammates finally settled upon an agreement which satisfied everyone – that is, to the extent that no one was quite happy with the task they had, but each was willing to compromise if it meant that another person would do something that they liked even less. Falco was going to cook, Slippy was going to finish decorating the tree, and Peppy would walk around the house doing various chores to make the place presentable for Fox's arrival.

Each then set themselves to their tasks in greater seriousness than they would have let on to the others. After all, time was passing and they wanted more than anything to make Fox happy.


	5. Chapter 5 - Reflections

Meanwhile, Fox was in his apartment bedroom room, still curled up on the bed. Earlier, he had grabbed a quick bite of an old bag of crackers taken out of the kitchen pantry, which were dry and tasteless. He hadn't really eaten a proper meal in a while.

Everything was a mess – both the apartment and himself. He hadn't washed his clothes in a long while, and the last shower he took was three days ago. He was neglecting himself and everything around him. Right now, one of the chairs in the living room was still upturned where he had kicked it over earlier today, right when he had heard Slippy knocking and yelling at the door. This was the third or fourth day in a row that the toad along with Falco had come by in attempt to coax him out.

Indeed, Fox had deliberately avoided seeing his team and answering their calls, texts and emails for the past three weeks. In the last two days, he didn't even dare go out of his house in daytime, in fear of bumping into them. He instead left home at night, heading to the few convenience stores that were still open in order to buy a few provisions.

And today, it was Christmas Eve. Fox knew this because the date was displayed brightly in red on his bedside LED clock, above the time. His time of sense was warped, and he could barely believe that it was this time of the year again. But it pulled him back into reality somewhat to see "12 | 24" displayed in red digital letters on the corner of the clock.

What was Krystal doing right now? Celebrating with Star Wolf, perhaps? He could see it in his mind: Wolf, Panther and Leon all gathered around her… This intrusive mental image brought him a fresh pang of pain. Last year's Christmas was perhaps the best he had ever spent. Krystal was at his side, and she was all that he could think about. Somewhat cheesy Christmas music was playing, and cheap decorations were all over the house, but her presence made the party wonderful. At least, that's how it was in his mind. And this year, there was no holiday party, because he didn't organize one. There were no festivities, because in his head it was dark and gloomy. Instead, he was stuck in this messy apartment building, with one chair kicked to the floor in spite against his overly nosy teammates.

…His teammates. Wait, that was right. His teammates. His mind drifted to them, and he suddenly became aware that he hadn't thought of them very much in the past while. How were _they_ celebrating _their_ Christmas?

Fox suddenly felt another pang, this time of guilt. That's right – every year before this one, he was also surrounded by his teammates on Christmas Eve. And since he was the leader, he invited them all to his apartment to celebrate. They always shared so many stories and laughs together. And Fox was hit with the truth that, this year, he had left Slippy, Falco and Peppy all alone on Christmas Eve, without a single holiday wish except for a chair being kicked over in response to their friendly concern.

"You should pull yourself together…" Fox mumbled to himself. "You're the leader of Star Fox, darnit! You don't need anyone…"

But it was a lie, and he knew it.

* * *

"Aaargh!" Slippy cried as he nearly tripped on the heart-shaped ornament that was still on the floor, which slipped away from under his foot with a spray of red glitter. As he lost balance, he took a few steps back to steady himself, causing him to bump into Peppy who was now sweeping the floor.

"Would you _stop yelling_?" Peppy screamed in reply, even louder than the sound that Slippy had just made. In his anger, he jostled the broom, which sent the dust that he had just swept up flying back into the air, along with some of the fallen pine needles.

"Sorry, but, hey, did you see this star lying around? A small yellow star that we could put on the top of the tree –"

"GUYS, I CAN'T CONCENTRATE!" Falco yelled over both of their voices.

Under Falco's jurisdiction, the kitchen had become a huge mess. In search of a bowl, mixing spoon and baking tray to make the cake, he had pulled out a variety of pots and pans and trays, most with burn marks at the bottom ranging from mild to extremely severe.

And now, the cake mix in front of him wasn't looking so great either. He couldn't find a measuring cup, so he had put in too much water. He had been afraid to use much butter because Slippy was running out. He did put a lot of sugar in, though, thanks to the one-kilogram bag that Peppy had bought. Anything tasted better with sugar, right? Shrugging, Falco took a spoon, and began to mix the concoction, mentally complaining that there the toad hadn't yet invested in an electric mixer.

When he was done, he had a bowl full of some sort of sticky goop with giant lumps suspended inside. Grimacing, Falco turned his attention to the oven. The electrical appliance in question had already endured far too much abuse during its life, a good deal of which it had probably spent with multiple past renters. Outside, the white coating of paint had since yellowed, and the metal door had a nasty-looking dent on the top corner. Inside, the metal grill was coated all over with some sort of sticky, yellowish and oily-looking substance from past cooking adventures.

Falco set the oven to preheat at five hundred degrees Fahrenheit. At the same time, he mentally took note that, though Slippy wasn't in need of wonderfully sparkling, awesomely shining, squeaky-clean windows, his kitchen was sure due for a radical overhaul.

* * *

Fox stared at the ceiling, continuing to reflect. In just under a year, with Krystal now in his life, everything had changed. He had become so fixated on their relationship and his attempts to make her – and himself – happy that he completely neglected his other Star Fox team members. But was Krystal _actually_ happy? Was _he_? Fox recalled a discussion that Krystal had with him, a few days before they officially broke up.

" _You know, Fox,"_ she had said. " _It's hard being with you…"_

" _Why?"_ he had replied, a growing knot of panic clenching in his stomach.

 _"It's like… it's like you don't really love me."_ Her voice was cracking now. _"It's as though… you like the_ idea of me _more than who I really am."_

 _"What do you mean!? I do everything for you, Krystal! I would give up everything to make you happy!"_

 _"That's exactly the problem, Fox…"_ At this moment, she looked him square in the eye. A weary expression had weighed down on her features. " _I don't want you to change for me. I want you to be yourself. And I want the freedom to be myself, too."_

Fox wiped away a bit of wetness that had accumulated at the corner of his eye. The memory he had brought back pained him more than he thought possible. But something was becoming clearer in his mind, this time around. Even yesterday, he wasn't quite sure what Krystal had meant by those words. However, at this moment, staring at the ceiling light of his empty apartment room, he came to the sudden understanding that perhaps she was right, after all. He had placed so much pressure on himself – and her as well – to act like the perfect couple, to do the perfect romantic things…

And he had lost her, because he had lost sight of who Krystal actually was inside.

He sighed deeply. But with that sigh, it seemed as though the anger and frustration in him was being relieved, if only a little. He still wasn't over Krystal, and remembering the times they spent laughing or fighting would always make his stomach burn with regret. But maybe he was starting to heal, just a bit, but enough for him to stand strong again and face the world…

When he was ready, Fox let his thoughts now drift back to his teammates. Only now did he realize how truly much he missed them! Earlier today, when he had kicked his chair in anger in response to their worrying, at the same time, he had been secretly glad that someone cared. All of a sudden, it became plain and clear to Fox – he was lonely, and needed his friends. And he felt terrible, because in his pain, had pushed away those who also greatly mattered in his life. But it was too late now.

For the first time in years, he would spend his Christmas Eve alone.


	6. Chapter 6 - Things Going Wrong

"Okay… so this goes here, and this goes there… ah! Got it!" Slippy began jumping up and down once more in joy as the wire of lights he had wrapped around the little tree lit up in a test run. In the process of setting it up, he had nearly strangled himself with a garland that had gotten tangled on both his neck and the tree lights.

" _Setting up a Christmas party is more dangerous than I'd imagined,"_ he had thought to himself in amusement while Peppy had cut off the garland hastily with some scissors.

This was the first time in many, many years that Slippy had taken out the tree, and he was darned proud of how it now looked, despite the fact that it was missing bits and pieces and had very few decorations. But the tree was small and bare enough such that the lack of ornaments complemented the lack of branches for them to be placed on. Slippy was a tad disappointed that he still couldn't find the star that he wanted to put on top of the tree – but then again, there were a lot of things he wished he had right now. He was making do with what he had, forcing the optimist in him to appreciate the little things. The ornaments he did manage to salvage included the glittery red heart, in addition to a yellowed paper cut-out of an Arwing. The latter was one of the last decorations that he salvaged today, buried deep at the bottom of one of the last boxes he checked. The toad smiled at the memory that it brought back.

A few years ago, Fox had hinted very strongly to the team that he wanted an Arwing model for Christmas. For the life of him, Slippy couldn't find one – or, rather, none in the price range that any of the teammates could afford. When Christmas Day came and they opened each other's presents, Falco handed Fox a large and elaborately packaged box. Fox excitedly tore open the wrapping only to reveal a crude paper cut-out of what looked only remotely like a badly scribbled Arwing, at the bottom of an otherwise empty shoe box.

Slippy had cringed when seeing the present, expecting Fox to be disappointed. But instead, Fox simply squeezed his eyes shut, then proceeded to let out the loudest, longest and most sincere laugh that Slippy had ever heard before from his team leader.

Slippy had learnt something that day. He learnt that friendship mattered so much more than material objects. And he had never seen Christmas the same way since.

Now, he was simply sad that Fox had been distancing himself for pas last year or so, ever since he and Krystal met. Slippy didn't blame either of them, but nonetheless, it made him lonely. At least, he had gotten closer to Falco – and even Peppy – during this time. Still, he missed Fox… and he hoped very much that the Christmas party they were planning would somehow work out in the end, as badly as things were going right now.

"SLIPPY! FALCO! What is going _on_!?" Peppy's panicked voice filled Slippy's ears, and at the same time, his nose picked up an extremely odd smell. It smelled like something was burning, but with a strange, chemical component added in.

" _Shoot, shoot, SHOOT_!" the avian yelled as he opened the door of the oven, only to let out a large cloud of black smoke.

" _Tarnation_!" Peppy added, right before the fire alarm went off and blasted in everyone's ears with unbearably loud, high-pitched shrieks.

It took ten whole minutes for the smoke to clear, and the alarm to shut up at last. Falco had ran into the bathroom coughing and choking, while Peppy fanned the smoke desperately using the cardboard of the cake mix box which he had ripped open. Concerned neighbors had even knocked to find out what was going on, their own Christmas plans interrupted by the cacophony.

Now, the contents of the oven were plain for all to see. The trio stood, staring unbelievably at the sight.

On the oven rack, Falco's easy-bake cake stood extremely charred around the edges of the baking pan. Furthermore, at the very bottom of the oven, right beside the heating element, there lay a blackened blob of plastic that seemed once to have been bright yellow. Although the object in question was also half-melted, it appeared to have also originally been in the form of a star.

"What… in the name of the Lylat System is _that_?" Peppy dared to ask.

"Is that… is that…" Falco began.

"Oh… no…" Slippy's eyes opened wider than ever.

"Don't tell me… it's…" Falco's jaw was open in disbelief.

"Yeah… That star I was looking for... Guess this is it," Slippy answered sheepishly. He swallowed. "I was wondering where it went…"

"You. Baked. The. Stupid. Star." Falco spoke slowly, with emphasis on every word and the pauses in-between. He let the words sink in, angry and toxic.

"Falco, that is not fair to Slippy," the older hare interjected. "Shouldn't you have also checked what was in the oven before starting to bake it?"

"And I suppose it's my fault that the cake is burnt too. How swell," Falco said sarcastically. He then moved his wings in a circle above his head, in a theatrical gesture. "Mystery of mysteries. Which burnt first? The cake or the star?"

"Falco…" Peppy asked hesitantly. "At what temperature did you set the oven to bake?"

The avian blinked, recalling. "Don't remember. Maybe five hundred degrees?"

" _Tarnation!_ You set the oven to _five hundred degrees_?" Peppy's jaw had dropped, and Falco suddenly felt heat rise up to the feathers on his face. He bit his lower beak again.

It was Slippy who interrupted them. As he spoke, his voice began to crack. "N-no, don't blame Falco. It's all my fault. I remember now. I put the star on the kitchen counter. How it ended up in the oven after, I… I don't know. I can only hypothesize that Falco… maybe knocked over the star somehow when he was putting the cake in. As crazy as that sounds..." He shook his head slowly and sadly at the same time.

Peppy patted the toad on the shoulder gently. "We will never know, now shall we? I say, we focus on the positive. What's done is done."

Falco bit down on his lower beak even harder, because all this while, he began to recall seeing a small, yellow, star-shaped object on the end of the counter where he was going to start making the cake. In the process of setting up, he had pushed a pile of junk to the other side of the kitchen counter, the end next to the oven. He remembered having pushed some broken pencils, a heap of receipts and some random trinkets. But it wasn't impossible that he had pushed the star along with it… And maybe it had rolled on top of the oven, near the edge…

 _Darn it all_ , he thought.

"I-is it… is the cake dangerous to eat now?" Slippy asked, sniffling. By this time, Peppy had pulled the cake out with some oven mitts, and was poking the middle with a spoon.

"Probably. Plastic fumes are very toxic." Peppy rubbed his chin with his left paw, the one that was not poking at the cake. "Not too sure I'd trust it. Besides, the cake's uncooked in the middle."

"Everything… everything is ruined…" Tears were welling up in Slippy's eyes now. He had tried so, so hard for the night to worked out. And at the last moment, everything was going wrong. "There… there's nothing we can do…"

"Hey, hey." Falco was extremely, extremely embarrassed right now. He began to stutter, which the self-assured pilot rarely ever did. "You know what… Forget about the stupid cake. It… it's actually probably my fault that this all happened. Actually, it is all my fault. We… we still have the instant noodles, right? And… the spaghetti sauce. Coffee too. Don't forget about the coffee." He patted Slippy's back gently with his wing, as well. The toad's sniffling quieted down.

"Hey, youngsters!" Peppy suddenly called out. "It's getting late! If you dally any longer, it'll be much too late to invite Fox over." Indeed, the clock now showed eight-thirty PM.

"You heard Peppy." Falco sighed, and also gave a half-hearted kick at the oven door. He remained silent for a moment, and breathed in deeply. He then turned his head to Slippy and smiled, half-apologetically. "Hey, genius… what's the plan now?" 

Slippy swallowed. A giddy feeling was coming over him, because this time, the avian was looking at him as though he was actually… waiting for an answer. And the way that Falco said it, the word "genius" had been pronounced in a friendly, almost affectionate manner as opposed to the usual sarcastic way. Gaining a bit of courage, Slippy wiped off the last remnants of a tear on his face, cleared his throat again, and straightened his back subconsciously so that he stood tall and straight.

"A-alright, guys! So, plan is… I'll go to Fox's place and get him out, because I was the last one who tried to reach him today. I've… I've actually figured out just what I could try to say so that he can't refuse. At worst, well, I'll kick in the door, like Falco suggested." Slippy laughed, taking a pause. Both of his teammates were nodding in approval.

"So, Falco and Peppy… I'll need you two to stay here. You should expect me to be return with Fox in half an hour. In the meantime, try your best to clean up whatever you can. Give him a really, really big a surprise when I knock!

"And, Falco, I'll help you finish cooking those noodles," Peppy added. "They will be lovely Christmas noodles. I'll really have to teach you all someday the fine art of cooking… to the best of my limited knowledge in this department, that is." He paused. "Truth to be told… I'm not that great at cooking myself. But one can improve at anything in this short life with a little effort, right?"

"Thanks, pops." Falco smiled at his teammate. "I'll need all the help I can get. And… hey. I appreciate it."

Slippy was dressed up and halfway out of the apartment door when Falco called out from behind him.

"And next Christmas, I'll buy you another stupid star!"


	7. Chapter 7 - Surprise

The following sequence of events was quite blurred in Fox's mind. Everything happened so fast and unexpectedly, he had difficulty processing it all at first.

First, there came another series of loud knocking at his door, for the second time in the day. It startled him, setting all of his badly-groomed fur on end. Simultaneously, his friend Slippy's voice boomed from the other side of the door, loudly enough for the vulpine to hear even in the bedroom with thick covers over his head.

"Fox! Please! Speak to me! Fox, it's Christmas. I'd just like to talk, okay? Please?"

It made Fox cringe inwardly, as he imagined how many other renters in the apartment had been disturbed by the yelling. But at the same time, he was a more than a little glad to hear the voice of his amphibian friend again.

And it was Christmas Eve, after all…

Therefore, he slowly, very slowly, pulled off the covers from over his head, and slid off the bed. He slipped into the only pants and shirt in the apartment that were somewhat clean. As he passed by the fallen chair in the living room, he bent down and set it back upright, pushing it into its place beside the table. And he slowly, very slowly, walked to his door as though in a trance. He first undid the extra chain lock. Then, he switched the main lock so that it was open. And, very slowly still, he turned the knob, opened the door just a crack, and peered outside.

Slippy stood there, still huffing and puffing. Whether it was from the effort of knocking and yelling, or whether it was from excitement, Fox couldn't tell. The toad's face immediately burst into a smile of both immense joy and immense relief.

"Fox! I thought… I thought you wouldn't want to spend Christmas alone. So… uh… I thought that… Uh, do you want to come over to my place?"

Fox shifted in embarrassment. He was also slightly relieved that it was only the toad there. He wouldn't have been able to deal with seeing the rest of his teammates all at once. "Uhm…Thanks, Slippy. I…"

Before Fox could really reply to his friend's shaky-voiced invitation, the toad had already pulled him by the arm out of his apartment.

"S…sure thing," Fox finally managed to mutter, as he stood watching his friend shut the door of his own apartment with a slam.

Still in a sort of trance, the vulpine allowed himself to follow Slippy down the stairs and out of the building, and into an old green car that was in even worse condition than Peppy's. And he let himself climb into the front seat beside his friend. All of this was done without a word except for a small "thanks" at the main apartment entrance door being opened and held.

* * *

As Slippy drove, they said very little. Fox shifted nervously. Thoughts ran through his mind. How long had it been since they had last spent time together side to side like this, in car or otherwise? And now, Slippy was inviting him to his home for Christmas, after being ignored, quite rudely so, for three weeks. Fox closed his eyes and sighed.

"Uh, Slippy… I… I'm really… I'm sorry," he said at last.

"Don't worry about it, Fox," Slippy replied softly, with a smile. Simultaneously, the car veered abruptly in order to make the turn that Slippy had almost missed. Once they were back on a straight road and Slippy could let out a breath of relief, he continued to speak.

"Fox… We just want you to be happy, you know."

Fox smiled weakly, his first real smile in a long, long time. At this point, nothing really mattered anymore. He was just glad to be with a friend.

* * *

Slippy finally dragged Fox up the stairs of his apartment, panting a bit as they got to his floor. He then dragged the vulpine in front of his doorway, and knocked three times. Before Fox could ask what was going on, the door opened wide.

In the doorway stood Falco holding a cake, and Peppy with a large pot of steaming noodles in his mitted paws. Both had enormous grins on their faces.

"SURPRISE!" all three teammates yelled in synchrony.

"Huh… hey…" Fox let out a small sound of acknowledgement, but otherwise stood frozen in place. There was a split moment of silence as Fox was paralyzed with the shock of the surprise, as well as the awkwardness of remembering how much of a mess his fur, clothes and general personal hygiene were in. He was feeling extremely self-conscious, because he had been neglecting his appearance quite badly for the longest while. At the same time, he also noticed that Peppy was wearing his favorite flannel shirt... inside-out. Furthermore, the hare's pants were stained at the legs by the remnants of some sort of not-too-clean liquid.

Somehow, that made Fox feel just a little more at ease.

"Shoot!" the older hare grumbled, effectively breaking the silence. In his inattention, his paw had jolted, and a sizeable amount of the burning noodle broth had just splashed onto his mittens. Despite his age, he darted speedily back to the dinner table in the living room to set down the pot before worse things could happen. Falco followed suit with the cake.

The diversion gave Fox time to adjust, and also for him to peer into the room from the doorway where he was standing.

He saw the floor still covered in non-negligible traces of pine needles, broken decorations and dust. He stared at the small, lopsided and somewhat pine bare tree taped to a wooden chair by masking tape, whose branches seemed about to crack under the weight of even the few lights and ornaments that had been loaded on. His gaze landed momentarily on the paper Arwing in particular, which hung right in the middle of the tree. A wave of nostalgia came over him, and he couldn't bear to keep looking at it for much longer.

He glanced away from the kitchen as soon as he set eye on it, not daring to look too long because flour and blobs of dough had been slathered all over the counter. He did notice, however, that a coffee machine was standing on top of the mess, humming gently. Fox's attention was then attracted to the dining table, where Falco and Peppy had just put down the cake and noodles. He only now saw that the plain cake was visibly burnt all around the edges of its pan, and furthermore had a hole poked in the middle, revealing lighter-colored dough that didn't seem much more edible than the rest. Also, the pot of noodles consisted in fact of badly bloated instant noodles that were likely to have been overcooked. Beside said pot, there sat a chipped ceramic bowl which was filled to the brim with what appeared to be spaghetti sauce.

In the middle of the table, a deformed, half-used red wax candle was burning. The little ember that it offered cast a warm light over cake, noodles, and spaghetti sauce.

It was all a truly and utterly beautiful scene.

The entire while, the smile on Fox's face grew and grew and grew, until it lit up his entire face with a happy, silly grin. He began to feel very emotional, and tears welled up behind his eyes. But, unlike the tears that he had shed so often in the past few days, they were tears of immense and overwhelming happiness.

"Uh… g-guys… You did all this… for me?" He paused, and wiped his eyes. "It's all… just so beautiful. I… don't know what to say…"

Falco broke the silence, having run back from the table along with Peppy. "It's alright, Fox. You don't have to say anything." The avian's voice was quivering with emotion, something uncommon indeed. He also reached out and put his wing on Fox's shoulder.

"No Christmas is ever complete without our Fox McCloud, after all." Peppy winked at Fox, and pulled him by the arm to lead him from the doorway into the room.

Fox took in a deep breath. He was now standing in the messy living room, where he felt immediately at home and in his place. Slippy had just turned on the lights on the tree, and though a few bulbs were dead, it provided the perfect finishing touch. All three of his teammates were now gathered around him. Slippy's grin was wider than Fox ever thought possible. Falco's usual smirk had been changed into a softened expression that included both overwhelming joy and immense relief. And Peppy was also smiling in his wise, old hare's way. Fox looked each of his teammates in the eye, one after the other – Slippy, Falco, then Peppy, and back again the other way.

"Spending time with you all is truly… the most wonderful Christmas gift I have ever received," Fox said softly. It was a scene that he would remember, _forever and always_.

Then he laughed, because his three team members had tackled him from all sides, enveloping him in an impromptu group hug. But Slippy had moved too quickly, with too much force, and the vulpine lost balance, falling onto both Peppy and Falco, so that all four toppled to the living room carpet in one big heap. They remained on the floor together like that for quite some time, the sound of their laughter filling every room and closet of the little apartment building.

Fox wouldn't have wanted to spend his Christmas any other way.

* * *

 _Phew. This is literally the longest story I've ever written. It just got longer and longer and longer as I kept working on it. When the story first started off seven years ago, most of the plot was just a chain of random events inserted to be funny. But as I worked on it this time, I wanted to make it… slightly more than that._

 _So, if you enjoyed this fic (or not), reviews are appreciated (concrit included, please please). Thank you for reading. And don't forget to appreciate the important people in your lives – not just for the holidays, but also during day to day life. ;)_


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